Coyotes players told of relocation to Utah, travel to tour new arena

Once the decision finally came down from Gary Bettman to relocate the Arizona Coyotes, the process has moved incredibly quickly. Now, the Coyotes players have been informed relocation is official, and they're travelling to Utah on Thursday.

According to Elliotte Friedman, the Coyotes players and staff will travel to Utah after they play their final game in Arizona on Wednesday against the Oilers. The Utah ownership group acquiring the team is the same that hosts the NBA's Utah Jazz, and the new team will play at the Delta Center. The arena wasn't built for hockey, so it can only seat 14,000 fans - still an improvement of 9,000 seats of the current Arizona arena. Utah is also in talks to construct a new arena in the near future.

After the game on the 17th, the Coyotes will make an official announcement of relocation. It's wild to think about, but that will be the final game in Coyotes franchise history - for now.

According to several sources, the NHL will leave an avenue open for the Arizona Coyotes to return in expansion. The league and Gary Bettman still clearly believe in the market of Arizona, but owner Alex Meruelo completely botched the operation of his team for his entire tenure. Hockey in Arizona was a failure, and Meruelo is largely responsible for it. It's possible that if the Coyotes do return, efforts will be made from other NHL executives that Meruelo isn't in charge anymore.

It will certainly be an emotional night Wednesday against the Oilers in Mullet Arena, as the true die-hard fans in Arizona will be left behind by a brutal ownership group. It's long overdue that the NHL move on from the charade in Arizona, but it's still disappointing to see them go as a failure that could've been rectified with better ownership.

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